Horror’s favorite formula is wearing thin
Pop quiz: What do you get when you mix the helpless dread of “Rosemary’s Baby,” ’80s-era satanic panic, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning an Oscar for best editing, and the ever-growing economic disparity between the richest 1% and the working class? The answer is just about any recent horror movie you can think of — and the one playing in the next theater over, too. That may sound like an exaggeration, but if you head to the multiplex this week, you can catch a double-feature of “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” and “They Will Kill You,” two films so remarkably similar in tone, style and theme that they read like parodies of each other. Their formulas are simple: A woman unwittingly finds herself in an isolated environment filled with satanist cult members who want to kill her to fulfill a Faustian blood pact. She must escape their clutches — the fate of the world might even depend on it — but she can only do it with the power of winking humor …
